-oso~ lfinctlapsus memoriae ii i i i r~1 he importance of memory is seldom fully appre ciated...

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"lfinCt \ ;U UJ1ft U ~ ~ ~ JOURNAL

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

SUMMER 1983-VOL. 43, NO.2

(ALL UNSIGNED ARTICLES ARE BY MANLY P. HALL)

EDITORIAL Page LAPSUS MEMORIAE ............. .... .............. ...... .... , 1

FEATURE ARTICLES HEYWOOD ON THE ETERNAL FEMININE-PART 2 ............ 11 CERTAIN DOUBTS CONCERNING SHAKESPEARE .............. 33 IN REPLy .....................•............................... 40 THE STONE AGE AND BRONZE AGE OF ASTRONOMY .......... 4S THE BATTLEOFTHE BOOKS ............ .... .................. 68 HAPPENINGS ..................... ... ............... .. ....... 72 LIBRARY NOTES by Pearl M. Thomas ............................ 74

Most of the reproductions of the early books, manuscripts, and objects of art which appear in this magazine are from originals in the collection of the Philosophical Research Society.

About the Cover: The Chinese TE PING CHING NEI which provides means to determine altitudes and angles in relation to meridians of heavenly bodies.

..-p________-. SUMMER 1983

PRS JOURNAL Published by the

PHILOSOPHICAL RESEARCH SOCIETY, INC.

A nonprofit educational corporation dedicated to the dissemination of useful knowledge in the fields of philosophy, comparative religion, and psychology.

e- , · ."a,. ·''Xi. j Issued Quarterly / Vol. 43, No.2

LAPSUS MEMORIAE

II I I I r~1 he importance of memory is seldom fully appreciated unless, for one reason or another, its functions are impaired. There is a curious tendency to

. , . remember best that which should be the sooner16d:1El forgotten, which results in many persons becoming L victims of their own negative recollections. To for

get can result in embarrassment, but it can also contribute to a major disaster. The prevailing tendency is to assume that the mind is capable of instant recall but, like every other part of man's compound constitution, memory must be trained and disciplined to protect us from the pitfalls of forgetfulness.

Fifty years agq, newspapers and journals advertised courses to strengthen the retentive faculty. One of these pictured two gentlemen practically falling into each other's arms. The scene was accompanied by the wording "I remember you. You are Mr. Addison Sims of Seattle." The secret of this memory system was .word association, and it was reasonably successful. Since those days, memory has not improved, but we are gradually forgetting the problem. In younger people lack of interest or preoccupation are major causes of forgetfulness, but those of advanced age must struggle with tired minds already overburdened with assorted recollections. In such cases, the simple and direct solution to the problem is to say, "I forgot." This however implies some imper

1

2 3 PRSJOURNAL Summer

fection and egotism takes over, leading to the firm statement' 'You never told me." This can lead to an argument that cannot be won and may damage the friendship of a lifetime.

If simple forgetfulness is regrettable, compound forgetfulness is still worse. In the latter case, the individual has a clear and concise memory of things that never happened. There is a third, still rarer form, in which various occurrences are brought together into an embarrassing jumble and the facts involved are hopelessly tangled. A simple lapse of the memory hardly requires definition-we have all experienced it too often. It is when we try desperately to fill the lapse that situations can become embarrassing.

My esteemed Grandmother would come in and ask me where I had put her glasses. When I denied knowledge of their whereabouts, Grandmother would continue, "I put them right there on the table, and there is no one else here but you. You must have done something with them." At that moment, I located the glasses. "Grandmother, you still have them on, but have pushed them up on your forehead." There was dead silence for a moment. It was unthinkable that Grandmother would admit that she had not placed them on the table. She could only fall back upon the traditional explanation of the occurrence. She lowered the spectacles to their proper location, looked at me very firmly, and with a deep breath said, "Huh!"

A somewhat different example involved my uncle who was a very distinguished and formal person, incapable of the slightest error on any subject at any time. He attended a convention of insurance underwriters and came home in a condition of extreme agitation. He insisted that in the congestion and confusion someone had stolen his wallet. He extemporized at considerable length on the details of the circumstance and remembered a rather dishonest looking man among the delegates. The only reasonable solution was to place the incident in the hands of the constabulary. While he was walking over to the telephone, it rang. A voice spoke, "I am the bartender at Delmonico's and I thought you would like to know that you left your wallet on the bar. It will be sent over to you immediately." It was difficult to tell which emotion dominated my uncle. Of course, he was delighted to know

1983 LAPSUS MEMORIAE

that his wallet was safe, but that no one had stolen it was disappointing. All he could do was to pick up the evening paper and remark, "Huh!"

Some years ago, an elderly lady brought me a most forlorn story. She lived in a boarding house which catered to very respectable, older persons. She explained that when she left the house even for a few hours someone entered her room and stole her money. She had a little box where she kept available cash, and time after time she found it empty. She knew she had not spent the money; but when she reported the incident to the landlady, she got no satisfaction. I went to her room with her, discussed the matter with some of the other residents, but the mystery was never solved. About a year later this particular tenant died, and the landlady refurnished the room. She phoned to tell me that she found money under the carpet, pasted on the bottom of bureau drawers, tucked behind picture frames, and even wrapped up in clothing. The elderly tenant had hidden the funds herself and yet was ready to swear that she was the victim of repeated robberies.

One convenient way to eliminate a majority of memory errors is by keeping a diary. Details which might prove embarrassing if the book falls into the wrong hands can be stated cryptically. All that is necessary is to orient important instances and incidents. It has been suggested that the mind is an invisible muscle and must be kept in good condition. There must be proper mental exercise and occurrences worth remembering. The present trend is away from well organized thinking. We lean ever more continuously upon outside help to preserve the records of our lives and thoughts. Children gain a certain amount of mental exercise from reading and school assignments. It often happens however that, after graduating, thinking is no longer useful or convenient. I doubt if good or bad memories are inherited. Some may have greater mental facility than others, but every person has a mental life which he can experience and improve if he so desires.

Psychologists have recognized that prejudices contribute to dishonest memories. An elderly man loaned some money to a lifelong friend whom he greatly admired. The man did not repay the debt and tried in every way to avoid the financial responsibility


which he had assumed, but because of this one incident many years of congenial relationships were completely forgotten. Nothing remained but bitterness and disillusionment. Unhappy remembrances are especially difficult to forget. If they involve self-pity, if we become too sorry for ourselves, we have no time or energy to think kindly of other people . I know cases in which a person reestimated experiences of over fifty years in order to prove conclusively, at least to himself, that he was the most afflicted human being who ever existed. No matter what others had suffered, he was able to compete successfully with anyone's tale of woe.

Humanity divides into two essential types. We are either born ,optimists or pessimists. If pessimism is strong in our composition, it is certain to infect the attitudes of the mind. During the busy years of living, there may not be much opportunity to indulge in self-pity; but when those years come which are supposed to reward a virtuous life, despondencies may gain an upper hand. It is assumed that the elderly are apt to be forgetful, but the forgetful optimist is much happier than the forgetful pessimist. A healthy memory is less likely to fall into senility when the infirmities of age set in. I know persons in their advanced eighties or nineties whose minds are as active and factual as they were in the days of youth . The gradual deterioration of the mind is a misfortune for all concerned.

Until recently, senility was comparatively rare. Oldsters might have become a little childish, but they were of slight embarrassment to themselves or other members of their families. It may be considered as a more or less terminal ailment. When few people live beyond seventy years, they could pass on in full command of their faculties. When the length of life is considerably extended but the circumstances of living have not been improved, mental fatigue becomes a social and domestic problem. As physical prowess diminishes, we all have to depend upon memories to strengthen our inner attitudes. Other circumstances can also contribute to mental debility. Alcohol, psychogenic drugs, sleeping pills, and even aspirin if taken over a long period of years can degenerate the intellect and reduce the integrity of the emotions. When tendencies to mental failure first appear, they should be met with courage and


determination. We should get the mind in hand before it is completely out of hand. If we cannot overcome a thoughtless past, we can determine to make the activities of the present mentally meaningful.

Many older persons are realizing this intuitively. Instead of settling back in genteel futility, they are creating purposeful activities that call upon long submerged interests and abilities. It may be valuable to turn inward to meditate upon universal truths; but if the inner consciousness is constructively supportive, it is often wiser to assume new social responsibilities and cultural programs. One elderly gentleman whom I deeply' respect began the study of Spanish at eighty, and a lady of the same age prepared an important work on medicinal herbs that is still treasured in her family. She slept well, ate regularly, maintained her independence till the end, and passed on in her sleep.

There is a rather interesting sideline to consider here. A young housewife, confined at home by small children, took up the piano. She never attained any special virtuosity, but could play simple compositions fairly well. The responsibilities of life changed, the piano was sold, and in due time her children graduated from college. Then came the grandchildren and the death of a husband after a long illness. In her early seventies, this woman faintly remembered her love for the piano. She purchased a new one fully certain that she had forgotten her former lessons. Actually she had forgotten nothing and in a few months caught up with ,her previous attainments and then went on to become an accomplished musician. She had the gratification of becoming the featured pianist in the church of her choice. Attainments achieved in the past are not dead, only sleeping; and even a tired mind can have a new lease on life if we will provide it with the proper opportunities.

If we are forgetful-and this is proven to us on many occasions, we should be cautious about blaming others for our own mistakes. An elderly lady accused her nurse of robbing her blind. One accusation was that the attendant had stolen money from her purse. She was on the verge of calling in the police when the incident was brought to the attention of the aged woman's son. He immediately had a long and careful talk with his mother. She told

1.


him that there was a twenty dollar bill in her purse the previous evening, and it was gone. He then asked his mother if she had been shopping the day before. She said that she had gone out to buy a pair of shoes. Suddenly a puzzled expression came over her face and she remembered where she had spent the twenty dollars.

Memory may also be corrupted by the gradual acceptance of untruths. This is a kind of psychic self-deceit. An old gentleman in his anecdotage claimed that he had been an inmate of Andersonville Prison during the Civil War. He described in gruesome detail the suffering of his fellow inmates. Finally, someone checked up on him and learned that during the Civil War he was only two years old. It was useless to point this out, and it is probable that he would successfully pass a lie detector test.

Another person I knew became hopelessly confused about certain incidents in his early life. Part of the account that he told belonged to his brother. There were no unpleasant results, but there are instances in which transferences of biographical details can have serious consequences. This is usually part of a subconscious effort to fill in holes in a failing memory. It is usual for major events to be remembered longer than routine happenings. This is also apparent in daily occurrences in which names ' of friends are temporarily forgotten or a person fails to return a phone call. One pleasant-faced elderly lady accepted facts graciously and told me that her "forgettery" was taking over. The moment this tendency begins to become obvious, things likely to be forgotten should be written down if possible on a calendar which can then be checked daily. The memory of older persons can often be improved by supplementary nutrition or a wisely selected diet.

An active life will strengthen remembrance by stimulating new interests. Geriatric treatments by toning up the general system often energize the thinking process. The failure of physical strength does not necessarily result in a reduction of mental efficiency. I have known a number of centenarians and they were all mentally active. What is perhaps equally important is each possessed a keen sense of humor. Memory deficiencies can also


adversely affect the disposition which further restricts social contact.

Self-pity can cause one to impair the memory or vice versa. A lady suffering from an advanced case of boredom claimed that nothing interesting had ever happened to her. There was only monotony, and she could not help but being a little envious of those who went places and did things. During the discussion, I asked her, "Have you never traveled anywhere?" Rather reluctantly she admitted that she had spent two or three years in Europe, had been around the world several times, and had recently returned from a grand tour of the national parks of the United States and Canada. She concluded by saying, "It was all a waste of time and nothing interesting had ever happened."

We examined in some detail other events of her life and found that she was suffering from a kind of psychic anemia in which nothing meant anything even though she had been richly privileged in having a worthwhile career. She mentioned a trip to Holland, but immediately recollected that the tulips were not blooming. It seems especially easy to feel that our own troubles are greater and our joys fewer than those of average persons. In order to maintain a personal sense of martyrdom, it is first necessary to vitalize in every way possible negative remembrances. While we cannot forget the things that have happened to us, we can interpret even pleasant occurrences as disasters from which there can be no recovery.

Another type of memory that can haunt us expresses itself through a bad conscience. The mistakes of youth scar the mind with regrets and even bitterness. As most of the happenings occurred long ago and there is no possibility of correcting them, an appropriate penance is difficult to find. Where this type of problem is lingering on to closing years, a little rationalization may be helpful. When we look back on our early lives, we must realize that it was impossible for us to have the insights and integrities which can only come from the practical experiences of living. At sixty or seventy years, we are not the same persons that we were at twenty or thirty. Every cell in the physical body has changed many times.


Our emotions have passed through a number of upheavals, and mentally any resemblance to the mind of childhood is purely coincidental.

History is a written remembrance of ages past and outstanding incidents which have affected the destinies of human beings and their institutions. There is no way of changing the events of the past, but they can teach us valuable lessons and influence future policies. Many question the accuracy of historians. Events are strongly influenced by the prejudices of the recorders of past happenings. Most of the records are kept by victors at the expense of their victims. The present trend is to degrade the heroes we have long admired to excuse or justify modern corruptions.

Our personal memories may be damaged by the interpretations we place upon them. It is much easier to condemn than to understand those who have offended us in one way or another or differed with our present religious or political allegiances. We have been given the faculty of memory to assist us in evaluating the consequences of conduct. Instead of learning from the past, we often permit it to become an excuse for the perpetuation of destructive attitudes. Many children have unpleasant remembrances of events in their earlier years. In some cases hypnotic regression clarifies clouded events and concealed ulterior motives. Memory is especially detrimental in the case of neurotics. Some come into this world with dispositional peculiarities which become the sources of painful misunderstandings. The willful child who cannot have its own way may consider discipline a form of persecution. The rebellious adult was usually a difficult infant. Lacking personal warmth, such a young person alienates parents, and is resolved to avenge itself by making life unpleasant for relatives and friends. Looking back upon half a century of unadjusted relationships, the neurotic sees no fault in himself. He was misunderstood from the beginning and made very little intelligent effort to understand his associates.

Cases like this prevent the faculty of memory from contributing to the enrichment of the inner life. Self-pity takes over and is fortified by every new event that is met along the road of life. One


possible way of improving a victim of self-pity is by strengthening his constructive religious allegiance. Association with devout persons who have found peace of mind through prayer and meditation sets a good example for the forlorn and world-weary. Also, it may happen that a disposition will improve with age. While the unhappy memories may linger on, they are not so likely to be energized.

A genuine crisis may leave a deep scar upon the memory faculty. Those who have lived through a war or a great natural disaster or have been victimized by crime may carry a vivid memory for the rest of their lives. In some instances, however, the cataclysmic incident may give new meaning and purpose to living. The victim may become a crusader and dedicate his energies and efforts to the correction of social evils or to the assistance of those left homeless by a natural disaster. Memories can always work two ways. They can destroy stamina or increase it depending upon the inner convictions of the persons involved.

It is now generally conceded that the psychic structure behind the mind and emotions never forgets even the least important events in man's mortal career. The record in the soul, however, is not subject to the manipulations of the intellect. The overself perpetuates the true facts associated with every happening. The lessons behind right and wrong reveal in the end that all things work together for good. As we release more of the inner life, we can handle our memories with greater peace of mind. If we think honestly now, old attitudes will be transmuted or at least revised.

Looking back over the world's history, we come to realize that each of us has made various contributions to the ways of antiquity. We were the Medes and the Persians, the Greeks and the Latins. It is quite possible that we marched in the Crusades or defended our lands from the conquest of Genghis Khan. There is also some chance that we went through the terrors of the Inquisition or were among the casualties of the H undred Years' War.

We lived, hoped, feared, and died for causes with which we would not addict ourselves today. The kindly thoughts that spring up within us originated in the sorrows of long ago. We are today

10 PRSJOURNAL Summer

living out the unfinished business of older times. We do not actually have a memory of the details, although someone may occasionally have a glimpse of a former embodiment. The complex disposition which now directs our inclinations is a consequence of things that have gone before. In a sense, this explains the infinite diversity of dispositions making up the contemporary scene. Our personality is a symbol of the degree of our inner growth. The old tyrants and conquerors return in search of new fields to conquer. The arrogant of old may still be arrogant, but universal law continues, and by degrees our perversities are worn away between the upper and lower grindstones of rebirth and karma.

Some of the old memories still wander about in the haunted chambers of the mind. When we gradually reform our mental attitudes and the cranial cavity is no longer what one psychologist called "a tumbling ground for whimsies," the wisdom of old experience will be more accessible to us. It is probably fortunate that under present conditions remembrance is limited to the present life. If we had to reexperience all of the incidents of the many lifetimes which have gone before, the strain might be unbearable. According to Buddhism, we cannot remember past lives until we have attained an insight in which the Divine Plan is so completely accepted and understood that we can face the revelation with serenity of spirit. According to the Jataka tales, Buddha remembered over five hundred of his previous embodiments, and scenes from them are carved into the surfaces of many Buddhist monuments, including the Borobudur in Java.

When it becomes possible for us to live at peace with the memories of the present embodiment, we will relieve our hearts and minds from unnecessary stress and regrets. We start a new life the day we rescue the intellect from its own dead past. I know a few persons who actually counted their years from a rebirth day when they began to live in the future and let the past bury its own dead. It can be done, but it does take the ability to assert the power of self over the circumstances of traditional thinking.

~

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them have never happened .

-Mark Twain

HEYWOOD ON THE ETERNAL FEMININE-PART 2

George Sandys (1577-1644) traveled extensively in the Near East and North Africa and later sailed for America to succeed his brother as treasurer of the English colony of Virginia. While there he completed his translation of the Metamorphoses of Ovid. Later, returning to England, he was appointed a Gentleman of the King's Privy Chamber and enjoyed an excellent literary reputation until his death which took place in the residence of his niece, Lady Margaret Wyatt.

We have the 1670 edition of Sandys Travells. In the lower register of the engraved title page, reproduced herewith, is a representation of the Cumaean sibyl seated in the adytum of her cave sanctuary. In the same volume Sandys also includes a panoramic scene of Lake Avernus and its surroundings. Lake Avernus is located in the Campania of Italy, ten miles west of Naples. It is an old volcanic crater and has no natural outlet. In ancient times it was surrounded by dense forests in which was located the entrance where Aeneas descended to the infernal regions. Hannibal made a pilgrimage to the site in 214 B.C. Sandys marks the lake with a capital letter A, indicating the location of the sibyl's cave by a capital B at the left side of the engraving and the ruins of Apollo's temple by a capital C at the right side of the picture.

On the subject of the sibyls, it may be interesting to consider the description given by George Sandys of the cave of the Cumaean sibyl by Lake Avernus. Sandys decided to explore the caverns where the sibyl dwelt. He entered a large and high-roofed passageway cut from the living rock into the mountain. Sandys and his guides entered with torches and, after advancing about a hundred and fifty yards, came to a narrow entry leading into a room about fourteen feet long, eight feet wide, and thirteen feet high. The room gave the appearance of having been richly gilded and adorned with mosaic workmanship. At the far end there was a lit

11


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Engraved title page of the 1670 edition of Sandys Travel/s. Centered in the lower register is a representation of the Cumaean sibyl seated in her cave sanctuary.

1983 HEYWOOD ON THE ETERNAL FEMININE

Sandys's engraving of Lake Avernus showing the location of Apollo's Temple, and the cave of the Cumaean sibyl.

tie bench cut out of the rock and the guide said that according to tradition it was there that the sibyl lay and delivered her oracles. Adjoining was another room with a low, square door where water flowed. This may have been a place for bathing. (See page 54 of previous Journal.)

From this detour into sibylline lore, we must return to Heywood's Gunaikeion. The eighth section of Heywood's volume is devoted to a consideration of women who were in every way learned and under the patronage of the Muse, Urania. The list of learned ladies is extensive and is supported by references from respected authors of early times. Among the literary lights of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the accounts of illustrious women were well known by educated persons, but fashions have changed and even respected encyclopedias no longer mention most of them.

Heywood gives special consideration to what we may refer to as the "family" of Pythagoras. Theano, the wife of Pythagoras, succeeded her husband as leader of the Pythagorean community at


The Cumaean sibyl attributed to the fifteenth century Florentine engraver, Boccio Baldina, reproduced from Divination, Ancient and Modern by John A. Manas.


Crotona. Dama, his daughter, also followed in her father's footsteps. Themistoclea, the sister of Pythagoras, was so advanced in scholarship that the master himself, as he confessed, sought her advice and judgment in the advancement of his knowledge. These notes will probably come as a surprise to many who are unaware Pythagoras had an illustrious family of brilliant women.

Our historian takes time to consider Nicaula, Queen of Saba (Balkis, Queen of Sheba). She came to visit King Solomon, long regarded as the wisest of mortals, in Jerusalem. She questioned the King of Israel so adroitly that he had ~ifficulty in matching the subtleties of her mind. There are many legends relating to this intellectual encounter and it is also affirmed that Nicaula bore Solomon a son who later founded the dynasty of Ethiopian kings.

As might be expected, Heywood gives Hypatia (370?-415 A.D.) a prominent place among women philosophers and scientists. He notes that she was the daughter of Theon, the geometrician, and the wife of the philosopher Isiodorus. She wrote learnedly on astronomy and maintained a school in Alexandria where she was

Postage stamp of the Mutawakelite Kingdom of Yemen commemorating the journey of the Queen of Sheba to Jerusalem to interrogate King Solomon on matters of philosophy and science. The stamp itself pictures the judgment of Solomon as described in the Bible.


frequented by many worthy scholars including Synesius, the Christian Bishop of Ptolemais.

During Hypatia's lifetime, serious conflicts arose among the Alexandrian scholars. The Christian community under Cyril was determined to crush the pagan institutions which were given to philosophy, mathematics, geography, and esoteric doctrines. To remove the principal adversary to the advancement of Cyril's ambitions, he contrived the murder of Hypatia. With her death, Alexandria ceased to be an important center of higher learning. Those acclaimed for the depth and breadth of their learning fled the city to preserve their own lives. It was this circumstance that led to the decline of education throughout Europe during what is now called the Dark Ages. It became obvious, therefore, that Hypatia was the last mathematician and initiate-philosopher of the classical world.

According to Heywood, the perfections of the mind are much above the transitory gifts of fortune, much commendable in women, and a dowry far transcending the riches of gold and jewels. As an example he notes that Alexander the Great refused the beautiful daughter of Darius, who would have brought with her kingdoms for her dowry and infinite treasures to boot. He chose rather Barsine, who brought nothing with her but an enlightened mind. She was a scholar and though a barbarian was excellently perfect in the Greek tongue. Though poor she was of good family.

Recognizing the integrity of such conduct, Lycurgus, the Spartan legislator, instituted a law to the effect · that women should have no dowry allotted to them. He was convinced it was better that men should choose their wives for their virtues and without consideration for financial gains. Heywood was in full sympathy with this concept for he believed that all human relationships should be without ulterior motives. If this law was properly enforced, there would be a further inducement for women to improve their inner lives and not depend upon appearance alone.

Among celebrated women is mentioned Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, who governed the kingdom of Syria under the Roman Empire. She was vanquished in battle by Aurelianus and was led in triumph through the streets of Rome. Impressed by the nobility of


her mind, the Romans granted her a free palace by the side of the river Tiber, and she later married a Roman senator. Zenobia was highly educated, expert in the Egyptian and Greek languages, and has been numbered among the most learned of queens. Among other works, Zenobia composed an Oriental and Alexandrian history.

At least a few of the matrons of long ago seemed to have been proficient in legal matters. Heywood mentions Hortensia, who took upon herself to defend a group of Roman ladies who had an unjust fine imposed upon them by the tribunes. When all the lawyers and orators were afraid to defend their cause, this discreet lady in person pleaded before the triumvirate. She did this so boldly and affably that she persuaded the legislators to remit the greater part of the fine which they had imposed. This reminded Heywood of women orators mentioned in the Holy Scriptures. These include Debora of the tribe of Ephraim, remembered for her wisdom and her predicitons; also Mary, sister of Moses, and the prophetess Anna.

Among the poetriae (poetesses) Heywood includes the sibyls, the Muses, the priestesses, and prophetesses. Seneca speaks of Michaele, a lady who in an elegant poem contributed to the refinement of the romantic instincts of the Thessalians. Manto, famous for her prophecies and divinations, was so admired that the city of Mantua was named after her. Pliny reports that Luccia Mima was a writer of comedies at which labor she worked industriously for nearly a hundred years. Praxilla Syconia flourished during the thirty-second Olympiad and was given the first place among the lyric poets by Antipater Thessalus. She is remembered also because she conjured Adonis from the underworld to demand of him what were the most beautiful things in heaven. He answered, "The sun, the moon, figs, apples, and cucumbers."

Heywood tells us that Telesilla was an incomparable lady, but he was not quite sure as to where she should be classified . She was of illustrious virtue, but might be listed among the Amazons for her warlike courage-or again, perhaps should be included among the chaste, the fair, or the wise. She was born of a noble family, but from youth was subject to many infirmities of the body. She there


fore asked counsel of the gods concerning her health. The oracle answered that she should apply herself to the study of the Muses and employ all her industry in verse and harmony. Following the instructions, she not only recovered her health but, due to that perfection of art especially in poetry, she was held in admiration by all other women.

Heywood devotes considerable attention to Joan of Arc (1412-1431). She was the daughter of a shepherd by the name of James and his wife Isabel. As a young girl, she was also a shepherdess and one day the Blessed Virgin, St. Agnes, and St. Katherine appeared to her in a vision, saying that by her means France would regain its freedom and cast off the yoke of English servitude. This account, coming to the ears of a captain in the service of the Dauphin of France (later crowned Charles VII) resulted in Joan being summoned to the presence of the prince. On her way, she asked a soldier who was her attendant to go to a certain secret place where there was a heap of old iron. Here in the midst of old shovels, hand-irons, and broken horseshoes he found a fair, bright sword which was engraved on both sides with fleur-de-lis. She carried this sword throughout her military career. A French record affirmed that the day before she was taken prisoner through bribery, Joan took the sacraments knowing that she would shortly be delivered up to a violent death. She was burned at the stake in the public square of Rouen, and a beautiful statue of her marks the place where she died.

In a general way, Heywood describes the most curious circumstances relating to the rights of women. Nearly every nation of antiquity bestowed special honors upon feminine deities. In some cases this resulted in favorable laws and customs for women in general. They enjoyed special privileges among the Babylonians and Chaldeans, and their rights were protected by appropriate legislations. The Athenians were less progressive, but appreciated the talents of feminine poets, artists, and musicians. Heywood tells us that when Socrates was entertaining a friend, Zantippe (Xanthippe) in one of her less attractive moods tipped over a table spilling the food on the clothing of the diners. Socrates was quite unruffled and more


Joan of Arc tending sheep, from Ridpath's History of the World.

21 PRSJOURNAL Summer20

or less admitted that Zantippe had just cause for annoyance when she had to live with a man of his disposition.

The Egyptians were especially progressive and Akhenaten, who was probably a contemporary of Moses, proclaimed the absolute equality of the sexes. The goddess Isis was the most popular deity in the Egyptian pantheon, and took good care of her earthly daughters. They could own property, maintain their own funds, travel at pleasure, and determine how their children should be educated. Egyptian women became scholars, political leaders, philosophers, mathematicians, and artists in their own right. As teachers they were often instructors of men, could travel in foreign countries unattended, and accompany men to public gatherings, banquets, and religious events. For the most part they were well educated . The Romans also did fairly well. In their code women could divorce their husbands for infidelity and in cases of divorce retain the control of the children.

Among women of doubtful virtues, Heywood includes Semiramis, the mythical founder of the Assyrian empire of Nineveh. The history of the Assyrian empire is recorded by Diodorus. It is now generally assumed that Semiramis was a mythological personage endowed with the vices and virtues prevalent among the Asian tribes and nations that flourished in remote antiquity. Heywood, however, while admitting that there are grave doubts concerning the existence of this ruthless lady, feels it proper to include her among extraordinary women.

According to the old legends, she was the daughter of the fish goddess, Derceto (Atargatis). Long after her passing, marvelous deeds and heroic achievements were woven into the accounts of

Se.miramis, Queen of Assyria, from the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493.


her life. She founded a number of cities with splendid public buildings, and ruins which have survived to modern time have been assigned to her skill and extravagance. The masterpiece was the city of Babylon. After a reign of forty-two years, she proclaimed her son Ninus as her successor, and took flight to heaven in the form of a dove. Bacon explains that in matters of public life accomplishments must be measured by those long associated in the affairs of nations. Only those who have suffered long in legislature can appreciate or evaluate the responsibilities that must be carried and the conspiracies that must be endured by those who have been elevated to authority.

The name of Semiramis has been associated with the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which are included among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It is said that these gardens were the only Babylonian structures of their time in which hewed stones were incorporated into the walls and terraces. Nebuchadnezzar, who reigned from 604 to 561 B.C. restored the ancient glory of the Babylonian kings, but all that remains today are crumbling ruins. There is a record that a somewhat similar complex of galleries and balconies was successfully engineered by the Incas of Peru. Semiramis is said to have conquered all of Ethiopia and made an unsuccessful attempt to invade India. The best way to liberate the reputation of Semiramis from conflicting accounts is to assign her to mythology rather ' than history.

Charles Roilin in his book Ancient History, New York: 1828, describes at considerable length the hanging gardens attributed to Semiramis. They were 400 feet on every side and ascended in elaborate terraces. The terraces were connected by flights of stairs ten feet in width. The vast monument was supported by massive arches rising from a foundation twenty-two feet thick. On each level of arches, huge stones were laid. These were covered in turn by sheets of lead which were so arranged as to promote drainage. The terraces were then surfaced by several feet of earth so deep that even great trees could take root in it. On the upper terrace there was a kind of pump by which water was drawn up out of the river and from thence the whole garden was watered. Within the

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PRSJOURNAL Summer

gardens themselves were beautiful rooms which were part of the great palace enclosure.

If Semiramis was invested with the embellishments of deity, she might well represent the great Earth Mother, and her garden would be the material universe which she had fashioned. The accompanying illustration is an effort to reconstruct the Hanging Gardens in Famous Nations, Volume 2, Part 1, The Story of Media and Babylon by Zenaide A. Ragozin.

Although Henry VIn is not generally regarded as a model ruler, he performed one important service for his country. By secularizing his government he opened the way for the advancement of learning throughout his domain. During the reign of Henry's daughter Elizabeth I, the defeat of the Spanish Armada ended forever the power of the Inquisition to impede progress in the fields of science, philosophy, and theology in the British Isles.

The seventeenth century was the Golden Age of English letters and literature. All gentles were required to be linguists and it was

A restoration of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon from Famous Nations, Volume 2, Part 1, The Story of Media and Babylon, by Zenaide A. Ragozin, London: 1892.


assumed that they could read Seneca or Cicero in the original. When a lady of refinement wrote a note to an Anglican Bishop in flawless Greek, his reply was in the same language. Those of studious mind usually found employment in a university or as tutors to the children of nobility. To be a member of the peer group during the reign of James I, it was necessary to be a walking encyclopedia. The scientific minded wrote in prose, the sentimentalists preferred poetry, and those with no message of their own translated the classics or the works of the intelligentsia on the Continent.

The English dramatists were prominent at this time and were able to claim originality for plots which they actually cribbed from the ancients. George Herbert wrote pious verse which included numerous acrostics. Dryden translated Vergil, and Sandys published an impressive edition of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Bacon was changing the course of science, philosophy, and jurisprudence. Robert Burton gave his opinions on the causes and cures for melancholy and other forms of psychic depression, and in the process quoted from several hundred authorities from past ages.

The Rosicrucians issued their manifestos, Ashmole paused in his study of alchemy to compile a history of the Order of the Garter, and Josuah Sylvester translated Du Bartas from a foreign tongue. Boccaccio was favored and Montaigne was distributed in England in an impressive folio.

Our friend Heywood contributed to the enlargement of English literature with his Hierarchie of the Blessed Angells, a work solidly packed with extracts from old sources and having only occasional poetical references to the celestial choir. He gave us the book which is the subject of the present article, and the ladies which he describes were in some cases rescued from oblivion by his patient researches.

Stephen in his World of Wonders covers considerable ground including a careful account of relics with miraculous healing virtues in various European churches and the oration of Kublai Khan on religious tolerance. Astronomy reached English readers through translation of Copernicus, Galileo, and Tycho Brahe. Lilly wrote adequately on Christian astrology, and Robert Fludd gave


the world an English version of his Mosaicall Philosophy. The list could be expanded, but this indicates the trend.

A most fortuitous circumstance contributed to the advancement of seventeenth century learning. The increase of the literary output required a major improvement in the English language. The archaisms against which Chaucer struggled in vain, the provincial idioms which hampered the distribution of the written word, and local dialects which prevented the advancement of social causes were unsuited to scholarship. By 1611 however, the King James Version of the Holy Bible was published, and is still acclaimed as one of the greatest works in the English language. Dictionaries began to appear to regulate the usages of words and the intellectual atmosphere was wonderfully cleared.

The taste of the times strongly influenced the selection of subject matter. Scholarship was cultivated for its own sake. For those who invoked the literary muse, there were long, quiet days in which to commune with favorite authors. Fiction had slight appeal and even a work like Barclay's Argenis was accepted as a thinly veiled record of political corruption. It is reported that Milton received twenty dollars royalty for his Paradise Lost. Those without personal means who contributed to the expanding educational system would nearly always find a patron, if not, he dedicated his volume to some person of consequence in hope of economic assistance. George Wither, author of one of the most famous emblem books, approached a number of persons of means but never gained much from his efforts.

Modern historians now find it convenient to depend upon contemporaries for both facts and fallacies. They count upon the opinions of their confreres and are almost certain to be burdened with prejudices and preconceptions. It is uncommon to find a historian who goes back to the earliest recordings of important events. In some cases at least, we become better informed about the peculiarities of authors than with the subject matter which they supposedly elucidate. As a result, descriptions of common events differ widely and the reader is hard put to discover the truth. Men like Burton, Montaigne, and Descartes could converse at least through the printed page with most of the great minds of antiqui


ty. They did not have to depend upon translations, editorial revisions, or amended copies. If Seneca or Cicero were eyewitnesses to an important circumstance, there was every reason to assume that their statements were not compromised by later fumblings of uncertain scholars.

This brings into focus a condition which affected Plutarch, Herodotus, and Strabo. We compare their reports with those accumulated through later centuries with confusing results. Here another dimension of difficulty should be noted. Famous or notorious personalities were originally estimated in the light of the policies of their times and places. Alexander the Great for example has descended to our time as a controversial figure. As a military genius, he was highly regarded by the Macedonians; but obviously the Persians lacked admiration for him. As was the custom of his time, he was of dubious morality and died of dissipation in his prime. In the days when this conduct was the rule, it was not held against him. The Macedonians wished to deify him, but he regretfully declined to be a god.

Recent biographers are strong to assume that the celebrities of long ago had very little to recommend them. By this attitude, the past is held responsible for the misfortunes of today. Paganism, as a religion, is considered unworthy of examination and idealistic philosophy violates the rules governing economic and industrial progress. The point we wish to make is that unless we have some basic sympathy or appreciation for a person like Hypatia, we can have no insight into her place in the intellectual or moral advancement of humanity. We accept the reality of mathematics, but are reluctant to recognize the genius of Pythagoras or Euclid.

The wisest of the ancients have left us not only the products of their skill and insight but great convictions about the basic integrities of life. Most of the illustrious ancients believed in the gods of their peoples and the codes of conduct bestowed upon them by the presiding divinities. Long before the Christian Era, there were rules governing the transactions of the marketplace and the forum. How can we ridicule the Code of Hammurabi (1955-1913 B.c. or earlier), King of Babylon, when he brought the god Nebo to witness that, if a man shoddies his goods, he breaks the law governing


heaven and earth? Where does the true wisdom lie? Is it with those who believed in honesty, or a corrupted generation which practices dishonesty with a clear conscience?

We have much to learn from the past-from Homer or Hesiod or Josephus and Hippocrates of Cos. We have not outgrown these recorders of the wisdom of.the past. We have not outgrown the Hippocratic oath to regulate the practice of medicine, nor have we truly excelled the simple piety of the Essene community of which Josephus has delivered to us so gentle an account. Until after the Reformation, very few really questioned the ancients; but with the liberation of the human mind, there came unreasonable doubts concerning Providence.

It is only in the last twenty-five years that we have observed a major change in the human perspective. Many publishing houses are now reprinting classics that have been unavailable for four or five hundred years. The sages of the past have been brought back from limbo to solve the doubts of present generations. This is also what happened with the revival and advancement of learning in England nearly four centuries ago. Things were not going well and James I, by no means a brilliant ruler but a genial character, depended for his survival upon the divine right of kings until he departed from the mortal world.

Charles I took his place but with no improvement. He supported an aristocracy which in turn was supported by the common people. Taxation was a way of raising funds to gratify the privileged rich. The British people have always been patient in political matters; but when Oliver Cromwell appointed himself Lord Protector of England in 1653, among his first duties was to execute the king. This led to considerable dissension and was England's first and only experience with the democratic form of government. Things might have gone better if Cromwell had been a democrat; but internal dissensions increased, which Cromwell attempted to cope with through the aid of the military. With his death however, his son was unable to hold the reins of government and in 1660 the kingdom was restored with Charles II as ruler.

There is difference of opinion again as to the abilities and capacities of Charles. He was off to a very bad start, which


historians have been careful to remember, but gradually won the approval of most of his subjects, which has for the most part been carefully ignored. One thing is certain, under Charles the religious atmosphere was liberalized and the Royal Society of London was established according to the plan of Lord Bacon to advance the sciences. It was after this restoration that the esoteric arts, which had been driven underground by Cromwell's puritanism, surfaced with renewed vigor and emphasis upon Rosicrucianism, astrology, and alchemy. In this period also, Continental mysticism was brought to England by early translations of Jacob Boehme.

It was in the midst of the great revival of the ancient wisdom that Thomas Heywood published his Nine Bookes of Various History Concerninge Women, London: 1624. The first folio of the Shakespearean plays was issued in 1623, and English playwrights were busily engaged in developing appropriate theatrical plotsmany of which were not especially favorable to women. In his Nine Bookes of Various History Concerninge Women, Heywood arranges the ladies under consideration into nine groups, each one presided over or dedicated to the name of one of the nine Muses.

The first book entitled "Clio" treated of goddesses-celestial, marine, and infernal. The second book inscribed "Euterpe," describes the Muses, sibyls, vestals, prophetesses, Hesperides, and the Graces. The third book inscribed "Thalia" honored illustrious queens, famous wives, mothers, and daughters. The fourth book is inscribed "Melpomene." This discusses ladies famous but of doubtful virtue. The fifth book inscribed "Terpsichore" deals with Amazons and ladies famous for valor or beauty. The sixth book inscribed "Erato" is concerned with women of the highest morality and chastity. The seventh book inscribed "Polihymnia, or Memory," places emphasis upon pious daughters, mothers, sisters, and wives. The eighth book inscribed "Urania" lists women celebrated for their skill in oratory, studious in divinity, excellent in philosophy, and honored for poetry and other literary endeavors. The ninth book inscribed "Calliope" includes women variously rewarded for their virtues and justly or unjustly punished for their conduct. This section Heywood tells us is "interlaced with sundry Histories."


Antiquity Explained by the learned Father Montfaucon translated into English by David Humphreys, London: 1721, includes a magnificent engraving of the Muses which is reproduced herewith in two sections. The engravings are based upon statues belonging to Christina, Queen of Sweden, and the figures are numbered from 2 to 10. The number 1 was assigned to a different subject. The identifying numbers are above the heads of the statues.

Montfaucon tells us that Clio (2) is crowned with laurel, holds in one hand books which record the actions of great persons and in the other hand a flute or trumpet. Euterpe (3) is crowned with flowers, holds a double flute in both hands, and is attended by a cupid who has laid his bow down at her feet and has a flute in each hand. Melpomene (4) is crowned with flowers, holds a scroll in her left hand, and rests her right hand upon a mask of Hercules supported by a club. Terpsichore (5) crowned with laurel, holds a lyre or harp. Erato (6), crowned with flowers, holds a similar musical instrument and is accompanied by a cupid who has laid down his bow and never used his arrows against the Muses. Polyhymnia (7) has her hair finely dressed and adorned with jewels. She seems to be in the posture of speaking or counseling. Calliope (8), also with an unusual hairdress, holds a pen in her hand as if about to write heroic verse over which she presides. Urania (9), crowned with stars, contemplates the heavens holding a globe in one hand and a compass in the other. Thalia (10) carries a flute and a mask, and is regarded as the inventress of comedy.

Heywood's list of distinguished women includes many who have been remembered for simple virtues. Numerous prominent men eulogized the virtues of their mothers, wives, and daughters. Our author gives first place to Mary, the Blessed Virgin, and then mentions the daughter of St. Peter. He also mentions a number of early queens, but whenever they are discussed it must be remembered that their characters are estimated by the standards of the times in which they lived. Occasionally, Heywood's personal preferences are rather obvious. He certainly dispels the current notion that women were without honor in early times. Heywood also seems to conclude that women in all times strongly conditioned prevailing policies. Those who were strong in feminine virtues did not always


hold public office, but strongly influenced their fathers, husbands, and sons to establish themselves in honorable pursuits and to live in harmony with the will of their gods.

Under the general heading "Of Women Studious in Divinitie" Heywood includes early converts to the Christian faith. He mentions Tabiola, a Roman matron, who gained so great a proficiency in the Sacred Scriptures that she was regarded with respect by the learned of her day. She was mentioned by St. Jerome who is said to have dedicated a book to her memory. Women martyrs for their faith were highly esteemed by Heywood. He mentions, for example, Anastatia, who was instructed by Crisogonus the Martyr. For the practice of her faith, she publicly suffered a glorious martyrdom.

There is also an interesting reference to Rosuida, who lived in a convent in the diocese of Hildesemensis. German by birth, she became proficient in the Greek and Roman tongues and composed many books which were highly regarded by her readers. She published six comedies besides a noble poem in hexameter verse about the lives of holy women, especially the pious life of the Blessed Virgin. The list of devout women reveals Heywood's basic desire to prove that throughout the history of the world devout women have advanced religious causes and their dedicated lives have been well recorded in the chronicles of the Christian faith. while most of them have cultivated the graces of the spirit, they have been individuals in their own right. They have advanced their own destinies for better and for worse.

Some women lived with lofty aspirations, and others for the gratification of mundane ambitions. In his dedication to Edward Somerset, Earl of W arcester, Heywood writes, "After so long a discontinuance, and neglect of a most acknowledged dutie, I durst not assume that boldnesse, nor dare I now (without blushing) to appeare before you at this present, did I not bring the Nine Muses, with an Armie of Goddesses and Women, to mediate in my behalfe. In these few sheets, I have lodged to the number of three thousand; who (could they speake) would undoubtedly informe you, that they were acquired and sought out for no other reason, than to be exposed to your noble view and most judiciall censure."

1983 HEYWOOD ON THE ETERNAL FEMININE 3130 PRSJOURNAL Summer

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10

.f

Ii

The nine Muses from Antiquity ExplaifltobyFather Montfaucon, London: 1721.


Heywood further ingratiated himself with the Earl of Worcester with the following lines: "Amongst the Noble Ladies, memorated for their incomparable Beauties, or commended to posteritie for their admirable vertues; thinke (my Lord) you behold all the unparalleld accomplishments of the excellent Ladies your Daughters, intended and comprehended: And to whom more pertinently may I commend the patronage of good women, than to your Honor, who hath been the happie Husband & fortunate Father of such."

()

The delicacy as to mentioning the age of women is no piece of sensitiveness . In the Old Testament, although great numbers of women are mentioned, there is but one-Sarah, Abraham's wife-whose age is recorded.

-Eliezer Edwards

At a large dinner party in Washington, a lady sitting next to William M. Evarts, then Secretary of State, said to him: "Mr. Evarts, don't you think that a woman is the best judge of other women?" "Ah, madam," said the great lawyer, "she is not only the best judge, but the best executioner."

-Edward William Bok

Mrs. Buzz arrived last week but was asked to leave this morning. She has already broken up the homes of five of the gods and has so many scandals on tap that a second war in heaven is imminent. She is an occult student from the planet Earth. It's funny but we have more trouble with these mystics than the Mohammedans and Zulu Islanders. The husband of Mrs. Buzz passed over several years ago but could not be found during his wife's sojourn here.

-"Pearly Gates Gazette"

THE MOST EXCEEDINGLY CERTIFIED SHORTEST POEM OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD; OR, EXACTLY WHAT THE ANGEL, GUARDIAN OF THE GOLDEN GATES OF PARADISE, WIELDING THE FIERY SWORD, SAID TO OUR FIRST

MOTHER ON THAT MOST FATEFUL OF ALL DAYS

Eve, Leave!

-Ryk Walenty

CERTAIN DOUBTS CONCERNING SHAKESPEARE

~ n 1848 the New York publishers, Harper and Brothers, issued a curious volume, The Romance oj Yachting by Joseph C. Hart. Colonel Hart was a lawyer, journalist, and yachtsman who lived for many years in New York City and was well-known in the literary circle. He was a colonel in the National Guard and

later U.S . Consul to Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands. He died there in 1855 in his fifty-seventh year. The Romance oj Yachting is a breezy account of a voyage to Spain on a merchant ship. During his leisure hours aboard ship, he wrote in a chatty manner on a number of topics, including the authorship of the Shakespearean plays. His ruminations on this subject were composed while the ship was in the vicinity of the Guadalete River, the ancient Lethe of classical literature. It was the colonel's matured opinion that the memory of William Shakespeare should be drowned in the waters of forgetfulness.

According to W. H. Wyman in his Bibliography oj the BaconShakespeare Controversy, Colonel Hart's article is the first known publication questioning Shakespeare's authorship of the immortal dramas. This is not quite true, but earlier references are more or less cryptically stated. The colonel did not advance any special candidate to take the place of the Bard of Avon, and was in no sense of the word a Baconian although he does mention one play that can be rightly attributed to Lord Bacon.

In the course of his mental meanderings, Colonel Hart derives encouragement and inspiration from the diary by Philip Henslowe, an English theater proprietor and manager during the Elizabethan Age with its numerous literary personalities. The date of Henslowe's birth is not known, but he died in 1616. Henslowe's diary was really an account book in manuscript, setting forth the

33


financial records associated with his theatrical productions. From this source, supported by other evidence, Colonel Hart reconstructs the dramas, dramatists, and delinquencies of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Some very excellent writers flourished during this period, and many of their plays reached the stage. It is noted that between 1591 and 1603, 270 manuscripts were added to the stock already owned by theater companies.

Colonel Hart made a careful study of a number of the Shakespearean plays and believed that he had made an interesting discovery. Most of the plays written by outstanding literary personalities were too elegant for habitues of the prbletarian theaters-which incidentally included bull baiting and bearbaiting among their features. The managers, to make sure of capacity houses, had to insert low humor and bawdy situations which must have disturbed the original authors who unfortunately lost all rights to their literary creations when the plays were sold.

Hart is of the opinion that the grave-digging scene in Hamlet was inserted for mercenary reasons and was not present in the original play. The rowdy sailors whose meaningless antics add nothing to The Tempest, and lengthy selections of the Merry Wives of Windsor cannot be considered immortal drama. The colonel also points out that many defenders of the Shakespearean hypothesis assure their readers that they know the labors of the bard by "instinct." This is a kind of extrasensory penetration which removes all doubt and has provided the foundation for an elaborate and extensive literature.

Colonel Hart tells us that about 1589, Shakespeare was one of the sixteen shareholders in the "Black-friars" Theater. His name was twelfth on the list. As the result of the immorality which was offensive to sober citizens, a complaint was issued against the theater and its company; and the establishment went out of business. The members of the Black-friars' company felt themselves entitled to compensation for the loss of their privileges. W. Shakespeare asked for the wardrobe and properties of the playhouse and 500 pounds for his four shares. His associates, Burbidge and Fletcher, a 1.S0 asked monetary compensation for their four shares each.

1983 CERTAIN DOUBTS CONCERNING SHAKESPEARE

Inside the Red Bull Playhouse, from Thomas Heywood, edited by A. Wilson Verity, London: 1888.

Before the entire circumstance was concluded, the Lord Mayor and citizens of London were out at least seven thousand pounds. One thing seems certain-Shakespeare became sole owner of hundreds of literary properties, but there is no record as to what he did with them. Is it possible that the tidy sum which came to him at that time explains his ability to buy a substantial house in Stratford? Shakespeare seems to emerge as a factotum manager of a theatrical troupe, but there is no record that he played a major role as an actor.

Although Hart is seldom mentioned by Baconians, he advances practically every argument now in circulation to the effect that William Shakespeare could not have written the plays attributed to


him. In 1857, Delia Bacon published her work The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare Unfolded with a preface by Nathaniel Hawthorne. She advances Lord Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh, and other outstanding dramatists as the concealed authors of the plays, poems, and sonnets attributed to Shakespeare. From the Cabinet Cyclopoedia~ Hart gleaned the following: It was the common custom for stage writers to adopt old pieces from various countries and then change them to fit the moods of the hour. The tragedy of

Portrait of Delia Bacon from Mortuary Marbles by Martin Pares.


Trancred and Gismund which was exhibited before Queen Elizabeth at the Inner Temple in 1568 was the first play adapted from an Italian original and five different writers worked on the composition. The Misfortunes of Arthur was written by Thomas Hughes and seven other persons, one of whom was Lord Bacon.

One would shudder to think what it would cost today to engage Ben Jonson to write a TV script. Things were different in old times however, and he wrote a successful play for eleven pounds-something over fifty dollars. Baconians have long suspected that such writers as Anthony Munday, Henry Chettle, Robert Greene, Christopher Marlowe, George Peale, and others found it prudent and convenient to have an appropriate person to take over the responsibility for the dramatizing of their plays. The popular theater dealt in every type of satire without serious consequences, but the gentry could not afford to become involved in downgrading the foibles of their times.

On his deathbed Robert Greene (1558-1592) in a letter to Marlowe, Lodge, and Peale wrote as follows: "Is it not strange that I, to whom they all have been beholding, shall be left of them at once forsaken? Yes, trust them not; for there is an upstart crow~ beautified with our feathers~ that with his tiger~s heart wrapt in a

\'~{~~ ~!.~~ - ' - ~~:~}n;/r(ttli~~~i. 1=, _" - ' ,: __5'::

~I ' ''f,:! ' -'i'~ II 1I :-I','~ '''';'I1->-" - 1

Stage and balcony of an old London theater.

38 39 SummerPRSJOURNAL

Engraved frontispiece of the 1694 edition of Bacon's De Augmentis Scientiarum. This plate appears first in the edition of 1645. A figure in what may be intended to be a spotted animal skin is carrying a book up a steep hillside to an imposing monumental structure. The seated figure, certainly intended to represent Bacon, seems to be restraining a person of no consequence who is attempting to climb to fame by gaining control of one of Bacon's books.

player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you! And, being an absolute John Factotum, is, in his own conceit, the only Shake-scene in a country." Considering the context which frames Greene's words, it is difficult to deny that Shakespeare is intended in the letter.

Colonel Hart then makes a very curious statement, "Upon the same principle that the Shakespeare series of plays selected by


Rowe and Betterton are called Shakespeare's, might we call the rare old tracts and papers of the Harleian Miscellany, the Earl of Oxford's, because they were found in his library, and some of them copied in his hand-writing. If they had been buried a century or two, he certainly would have been their author with the commentators of the calibre of those, generally, who have written upon Shakspeare." In recent years, the Earl of Oxford is considered a contender for the authorship of the Shakespearean plays, but his cause has been feebly defended up to the present time.

Efforts to build up William Shakespeare as the author of the immortal plays has become a business enterprise in Stratford-uponAvon. When Woolworth opened a store there, small statues of the bard filled many of the shelves. As a faithful tourist, I visited the great house and leaned on Willy's favorite table. The portraits were there and the death mask; but with it all, the tour was disappointing. How things are at the moment, I do not know; but in those hallowed rooms, there was an emptiness. All the small intimate things one would expect were absent. There was no inkwell or library shelves or cozy furnishings. There has been little success in building a substance of a real person. Mark Twaip was equally disappointed when he looked upon the bust of Shakespeare in the Stratford Church. The myth continues, but never before has there been so valiant an effort to build a human being who has faded like an insubstantial vision and left not a rack behind.

~

Shakespeare, the man who is supposed to have penned those immortal words-"The quality of mercy is not strained"-while himself well-to-do, and therefore not in need, for two shillings sued a fellow townsman who was in financial straits and made the town pay for the wine with which he treated his friends.

"When 1 get to heaven," said a woman to her Baconian husband, "I am going to ask Shakespeare if he wrote those plays." "Maybe he won't be there," was the reply. "Then you ask him," said the wife.

-Modern Eloquence

41

In Reply

A Department of Questions and Answers

j Question: Some twenty-five years ago, I was driving my car along a busy street when a small child ran out from the middle of the block between two parked autos. There was no possible way of stopping my own car in time, and I killed a little girl about five years old. I was completely exonerated from all responsibility and the accident was listed as unavoidable, but this incident continues to haunt me. Two or three times a year I have detailed dreams of the accident and they are followed by weeks of depression. Even the child's family have assured me that I should not blame myself, but my entire life has been overshadowed with this tragic incident. Can you make any suggestions as to how I can overcome these haunting memories?

A nswer: Perhaps we should try to understand what are commonly called acts of Providence. There had to be a reason why this child ran in front of your car. Infant mortality has always seemed to be contrary to the moral operation of Universal Law. As we must accept that the Divine Plan makes no mistakes, we must justify many mysterious occurrences that we cannot fully understand. First of all, birth and death are experiences which are inevitable. In nature all compounds must be dissolved and that which is embodied must in due time separate from that body. As the Divine Power ordained this procedure, it must be essentially good.

In his "Consolation to Apollonius" on the death of his son, Plutarch wrote, "But the most sovereign remedy against sorrow is our reason, and out of this arsenal we may arm ourselves with defence against all the casualties of life; for everyone ought to lay

40

1983 IN REPLY

down this as a maxim, that not only is he himself mortal in his nature, but life itself decays, and things are easily changed into quite the contrary to what they are; for our bodies are made up of perishing ingredients. Our fortunes and our passions too are subject to the same mortality ...."

We must first understand that a mortal body is the temporary abode of an immortal soul. This soul is not born with the body, but enters into it to experience a temporary sojourn in the material world. In due course from one cause or another, the soul departs from the flesh and returns to the regions from which it came. To most of us, the birth of a child is a happy event, and we become so immersed in the wonders of incarnation that we seldom pause to reflect upon the penalties of embodiment. As one Greek philosopher noted, "No man is safe until he is dead."

When tragedy strikes, the average individual's faith in universal justice may be sorely shaken. The first instinct is to blame someone or something for the unhappy circumstance. When a great fire destroys a forest, someone was careless with matches. When the dam breaks, it is taken for granted that the builders used inferior materials. When such explanations fail, it is customary to fall back upon the acts of Providence theory. To the materialistic thinker, this means that the happening simply occurred without rhyme or reason. In -ancient times, it was taken for granted that disasters were sent by the gods to punish evildoers. This seemed plausible because nearly everyone had to admit, at least to himself, that he occasionally indulged in dishonorable enterprises.

In our times, tragedies are classified under two headings. The first assumes that the human being, either through ignorance or perversity, is continually contributing to the miseries which afflict himself and his world. The other explanation is more or less theological. It affirms that a universal Deity ordains those mystifying occurrences which the normal human mind cannot justify or explain. Thoughtful persons are inclined to believe that a benevolent Deity is solicitous for the well-being of the creatures it has fashioned. We thank God for the joys that come to us, ask for the continuance of favors, and divine intercession in moments of stress and pain. We take it for granted that God is an ever-present help in


time of trouble. A few atheists may decide that the pious are simply gullible, but this point of view has never been generally acceptable.

In hours of grief, we are naturally inclined to take refuge in our spiritual convictions. The stronger our faith, the greater our strength becomes in moments of emergency. For many, there is no reason to question the workings of the Divine Will, and it is assumed that the ways of God surpass human understanding. We can only accept what comes and carryon the labors of living.

One of the great questions which it is difficult for mortal minds to accept relates to the afflictions of the very young. Why should little children be subjected to neglect and parental brutality? Why should they be the victims of war and revolution? Why should they be born with mental or physical deformities? And why should they sicken and die before they are old enough to understand the dilemmas of their own existence? How can such circumstances be part of a way of existence in a universe created by the love of God and maintained by his ever-present wisdom and strength?

There are many different explanations in the religions of the world, but yncertainties linger on. There are cases in which manmade laws and institutions have worked terrible hardships on children, but there are other mitigating factors which cannot be explained away. The unavoidable accident cannot be blamed upon human shortcomings. To defend the integrity of Universal Law and at the same time relieve Deity of moral responsibility for acts of Providence, a certain amount of philosophical contemplation appears to be necessary.

One approach is to accept death as a part of life-an incident in living, and not the end of personal existence. If the human soul is immortal as most of the great world teachers have affirmed, physical birth cannot be the beginning nor physical death the end. In away, this is a consolation throughout the span of our mortal lives and a great comfort in moments of transition. If death is not the end of anything but only a change of worlds, as Kahlil Gibran wrote, the philosophical position is strengthened.

If death is not a termination, if nothing perishes but a physical body, and the dweller in that body is immortal, grief can certain

431983 IN REPLY

ly be lessened and fear diminished. Transition then becomes an aspect of divine benevolence-an aspect of universal integrity. The Divinity that marks each sparrow's fall is mindful of the procedures which it has established; and they all end in the perfection of the human being. Man is outgrowing himself by a series of easy or uneasy lessons which are divided by times of rest.

Reincarnation also brings into focus the law of cause and effect. We have all lived before and, from present testimony, our former lives were not altogether noble or serene. Many lived outrageously and passed out of life before their delinquencies caught up with them. We have all come into this world with a burden of unfinished business and when a delayed justice sets in, we consider it an outrageous act of Providence. In the case of an accident, all persons involved have lessons to learn and receive renewed opportunity to gain insight and understanding.

This brings us to your particular problem. You were involved in an unavoidable accident. The child who died was the embodiment of a being that had lived hundreds of lives in the past and will live more in the future. She had a particular karma of her own. Somewhere long ago, she may have been responsible for the death of a child and, if so, she will learn in due time how cause and effect operated in her case. There are incidents recorded in which the entity was reborn in the same family within a few years. Your side of the lesson could have been to find practical ways of working out the emotional stress which has lingered in you for many years.

In the Orient, especially, a person carrying a heavy burden of unhappy memories often decides to go on pilgrimage. He might start out on foot to visit the shrines or holy places of his faith in each of which he would discuss his anxieties wi~h a kindly-faced priest and receive the old man's blessing. Such a pilgrimage usually took from six months to a year and supported the pilgrim over the 1'1

worst emotional crisis. For troubled souls, guiltless or guilt ridden, careers of service to the sick or the needy are often beneficial in helping a person to forgive himself if he is burdened with the sense of guilt. This kind of penance is not necessarily associated with self-punishment. It is simply a way to live with a painful memory which has been intensified by recurrence of negative memories.


It might be good for you to become involved in programs of child welfare. At the present time there is great need to help and protect small children from the tyrannies of contemporary family relationships. In your heart you can make a quiet dedication and transform negative memories into new ones that have positive social value. I have known a number of persons who have voluntarily dedicated their lives and abilities to the service of the young. One lady devoted many years to giving free music lessons to talented boys and girls. Another united the parents of a community by arranging a baby sitting society. She did most of the sitting, but cared for several children at the same time giving their parents opportunities for other activities. An elderly man who had been a language teacher gave foreign children lessons in English without charge so that they earned better grades in their schoolwork. A father who had a child of his own in a mental institution counseled with parents heavily troubled with this type of problem. His quiet, gentle, and encouraging talks had special meaning because he proved conclusively that it was possible to make a peaceful adjustment even in a situation of this kind.

If you can realize that there is no death but only a change of worlds, as Kahlil Gibran wrote, you can also understand a message from the Bhagavad Gila in which when a man says "I have slain" and another man says "I am slain" in effect both speak an untruth. They assume that death is a reality, but in fact it is an illusion by which we assume that the body is identical with the dweller that inhabits it.

In the end, it is faith supported by inner realization of the Universal Plan and purpose that must bring peace to a troubled soul. Faith not only protects the unhappy person but justifies the realization that the Divine Plan is ever purposeful. Even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we are protected because the spirit of truth walks beside us.

Some day, we will know the mystery of the life beyond and we will realize that physical continuance will not be an important reason for material -existence. We are here to prepare ourselves mentally, emotionally, and physically to understand and accept that we abide forever in what the Egyptians called "the House of Everlastingness. "

o

THE STONE AGE AND BRONZE AGE OF ASTRONOMY

t is widely believed that astronomy was the most ancient of

tthe sciences, and its beginnings are hidden behind the dark :. curtain of prehistory. In his first book On Divination, Cicero ~-} observed that the Chaldeans had records of the stars for the Mi space of three hundred and seventy thousand years, and Dio'~"iii dorus Siculus believed that the Babylonians traditionally as:",1\ sumed that their studies of the heavens began four hundred ~ and seventy-three thousand years ago. Thomas Taylor, in his

notes on Julius Firmicus Maternus, quotes early authorities who advanced a still earlier date. For further details consult my book Story of Astrology. It is not likely that any modern scientist will take these accounts literally, but the fact remains that the wonders of the heavens have been explored for many thousands of years.

Hipparchus, who flourished in the second century B.C., is regarded as the most important astronomical observer of the ancient world. He was born in Nicaea, but no other biographical details have been preserved. The most important of his contributions to astronomy have been preserved by Strabo of Amasya and Claudius Ptolemy. Hipparchus attained lasting fame for his discovery of the precessions of the equinoxes. There has been some question as to whether Hipparchus actually made use of the instruments on the Alexandrian observatory but, as P. M. Fraser tells us in his important work Ptolemaic Alexandria, the great astronomer did describe in some detail the astronomical facilities of this observatory. In his book Astronomy for All, Bruno H. Burgel reproduces an engraving of the observatory of Alexandria in the time of Hipparchus. John Hevel established an observatory in Danzig in 1640 and, from a picture of the facility, it appears that there was very little change in astronomical instruments even after the invention of the telescope.

45

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47 46 Summer

Hipparchus studying the stars in the observatory in Alexandria. From Ridpath's History of the World by John Clark Ridpath, LL.D., Cincinnati: 1899.

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1983 STONE AGE AN9 BRONZE AGE OF ASTRONOMY

It has been said that astronomy is as old as mankind. In the earliest times it was principally a calendar science for the determination of the seasons and the recording of historical events. While it is convenient to maintain this opinion, it appears more likely that it was cultivated with astrological objectives in mind. Sober scientists of today consider astrology as the "mad mother of astronomy." In all areas where advanced cultures flourished, vestiges of buildings dedicated to the explorations of the starry heavens have survived to modern times. In the Western Hemisphere there is proof that the Maya, Aztec, and Inca peoples involved astronomical concepts in their architecture and ancient writings. Ziggurats, towers for the study of the stars, were fashioned by the Chaldeans and-Babylonians. The pyramids of Egypt and the Druid monuments of Britain are now believed to have been remarkably efficient calendars, and the Moslems were responsible for the development of a variety of astronomical instruments.

Thales (640?-546 B.C.), the earliest of the Greek philosophers, lived in Asia Minor, and his astronomy was probably influenced by the astrotheology of the Babylonians. He attained undying fame as the result of his correct prediction of an eclipse. This event is recorded by Herodotus, but unfortunately this Father of History had a vivid imagination on many subjects. He mentions, for example, that the Egyptian pyramids were built from the top down. In his philosophy, Thales rationalized to his own satisfaction interesting opinions concerning the earth. He assumed the planet to be a flat disc, the heavens a huge crystal bell enclosing the earth, and the stars were gilt-headed nails driven into the inside of the bell.

Astronomy has made several contributions to the advancement of learning. It led to the building of libraries, to advancements in mathematics, and to progress in geography and navigation. Most of all, perhaps, it encouraged man's search for the meaning of the world in which he lived and his own place in the larger universe. Astronomy contributed a solid basis for theological speculations relating to the nature and powers of God and the structure of that invisible realm which was the abode -of those divine hierarchies who decree and impel the aspects of mortal existence. Through patient observations and reflections on the orderly sequences of the


sidereal bodies, the human mind became aware of the laws governing the phenomena of existence. The discovery of the orderly processes of the heavenly bodies was of the greatest moral significance to mankind.

It is easy to ignore the gropings of the first scientists, and to regard their findings as superstitions of the primitive mind. It might be well for us to remember, however, that the first observers were not concerned primarily with the anatomy of the solar system or the more distant constellations. They were searching rather to understand the will of that Divine Power which ordained all life and established the only valid codes of morality and ethics. The ancients were unwilling to accept the belief that the universal substance was without a soul. To them, the starry realms were the visible symbols of immutable principles. We can wonder how it happens that the modern astronomer gains from his labors so little inspiration to the improvement of his own character and unselfish love for both God and man.

The astronomical concepts held ages ago are still perpetuated in the sacred books of the world. The structure of the cosmos as visualized by the Chaldean sages supplied the astrotheology of the Holy Bible, the Koran of Mohammed, and the Vishnu Purana of the Hindus. This is also the cosmic scheme of Dante's Inferno and Milton's Paradise Lost. It dominated all astronomical research until the invention of the telescope in the early seventeenth century. This fascinating instrument is usually regarded as terminating forever the misconceptions of the ancients. Years ago, I knew a devout astronomer who had spent most of his time between graduation and retirement counting stars. At last, it seemed that his task was accomplished, but at the critical moment a larger telescope was placed at his disposal and he had to start all over again.

Every few years, some new discovery is made which contributes little or nothing to the solution of unemployment, inflation, or the development of nuclear armament. It would appear to be a calamity to substitute statistics for meaning in any field of knowledge. The sky is like a great book. We can see the letters of a sidereal alphabet, but we have not yet been able to read the words spelled

1983 STONE AGE AND BRONZE AGE OF ASTRONOMY

out by this handwriting on the wall. The Chaldeans and Babylonians and their legitimate successors gradually transformed astronomy into astrology.

This was the beginning of a search for valid significance. The heavenly bodies were viewed as the elements of a divine chemistry which had as its proper purpose the reformation of humanity. Mathematics came into focus. It is said that Hipparchus, to advance his studies, invented trigonometry. The mUltiplication table was not designed to add up grocery bills. It could be useful to this purpose, but the Pythagorean theory of numerology was based upon a divine revelation to enrich and ennoble the powers of the human mind. Because mathematics is an exact science, it enabled the priests of the ancient temples to appreciate the real purpose of space and all its creatures.

From the philosophy of the heavens came the consolation of the immortality of the human soul. All the creatures fashioned by the Divine Plan are eternal and immortal, and in the infinite distances of duration there is no beginning or end. The establishments of nations, the governments of peoples, and the responsibilities of personal living were revealed by the patterns of the starry empire. Medicine explored the sympathies between the functions of man's corporeal body and the physiological processes exemplified by the "grand man of the zodiac." Nearly all early physicians were especially mindful of the motions of the moon and the influence of that luminary upon the fluids in the brain, arterial system, and the intestines.

i How does it happen that thousands of years of thoughtfulness

and experimentation are now ignored by persons claiming to be informed and progressive? Is it not time to become so progressive that they can catch up with antiquity? The ship of state is without a rudder until mortals know where they are going and why they must get there. The tendency of science is to frustrate the constructive aspects of human imagination. The only way we can survive is to grow, and growth is the process of building solid foundations under abstract convictions. We can split atoms, study spectrums, peer fearfully into black holes, wander about in the curve of the

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continuum, and at the same time destroy the civilization to which we belong. In sober fact the undevout astronomer is mad and shares this madness with experts in several other fields.

The early study of the stars required appropriate physical conditions. The first observatories were natural hills which provided panoramic views of the sky. No instruments were available and researches were limited to the unaided vision. In regions where natural sites were unavailable, mounds (later pyramids) were built for the use of priestly astronomers. In due time it was noted that stones could be arranged to form solar or lunar calendars, as in the case of Stonehenge and other Druid monuments. Sundials provided perpetual calendars and these were supported by water clocks and hourglasses. Sundials were sometimes so small that they could be carried in the pocket but larger ones, with their accessories, could reach a height of fifty to eighty feet.

The great stone observatories of India were created by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II (1686-1743). He became the ruling prince of Amber when only thirteen years of age and, through judgment and strong constructive leadership, expanded his domain and founded in 1727 A.D. his new capital city of Jaipur which is still regarded as a well-planned community. He also inspired the restoration of the honors and dignities of Rajasthan under the Rajput leaders. It so happened that Sawai Jai Singh was inclined to mathematical studies and took a lively and lasting interest in astronomy. The theological aspects of cosmogony had already been thoroughly explored by the ancient sages of India, but means for accurate calculations had long been lacking. To advance the prevailing system of chronology and establish a more accurate calendar, the maharaja established five remarkable observatories-the first in his own state of Jaipur and later in Delhi, Ujjain, Varanasi (Banaras), and Mathura.

In Asiatick Researches, volume 5, pages 177-178, it is noted that Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh by the aid of the Supreme Artificer was able to attain the highest rank of enlightened benevolence. He was the "brightest star of the heaven of empire, whose standard is the Sun, whose retinue the Moon, whose lance is Mars, and his pen like Mercury, whose threshold is the Sky, whose signet is


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The great observatory in Jaipur City, India. Photograph by Manly P. Hall.

The Ram Yantra, two circular buildings forming one instrument for the measurement of altitude and azimuth. From a handbook of the astronomical observatory at Delhi by Lala Bholanath, B.A., L.C.E.


Jupiter, whose sentinel Saturn, the Emperor descended from a long race of kings, an Alexander in dignity, the shadow of God, the victorious king, Mahommed Shah,-may he ever be triumphant in battle!" (See The Sacred City of the Hindus by M. A. Sherring, London: 1868, pages 132-133.)

While building the great stone instruments of his observatory, the Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh had a number of discussions with Jesuit scientists well informed in European concepts of astronomy. He finally decided, however, that the relatively small equipment available to European stargazers could · not accomplish the accuracy which he desired. He therefore politely declined the assistance of the Catholic scientists and followed in his own way.

While in J aipur, India, I had the privilege of examining one of the finest of the old astronomical observatories created by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh. This complex of massive instruments has been called' 'the last survival of the Stone Age in Astronomy." The group, as shown in the accompanying illustration, is dominated by a ninety-foot sundial. To the right of this are twelve small

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dials each allotted to one of the signs of the zodiac. By the proper use of these massive devices, the right ascensions and declinations can be determined and there are curious contrivances for measuring altitudes and azimuths. There is no telescope, but there are a number of brass contrivances resembling huge clocks. While I was wandering about, the resident astronomer, his face wreathed in smiles, approached me to share the good news of the day. He waved a little pamphlet and in a state approaching ecstasy announced that he had found an error in the British nautical almanac.

The legendry of India credits the Brahmins with the ability to measure the durations of cosmic motions covering millions of years. One thing is certain-astronomy was well advanced by the beginning of the Christian Era. What seemed to be lacking were well-equipped astronomical observatories, and in this detail the Chinese made a valuable contribution. It is now generally assumed that a group of astronomical instruments was originally placed on the wall of the Tartar city of Peking through the patronage of Kublai Khan in the thirteenth century A.D.

Although there is evidence that navigational instruments existed in ancient times, an observatory such as we kpow it today was not established in Europe until 1576 A.D., founded by Frederick II of Denmark. There is a record by Hipparchus (c. 140 B.C.) of an observatory on the island of Rhodes; and a Persian p(ince, the grandson of Tamerlane, is believed to have built one in Samarkand in the early fifteenth century. All of those were pretelescopic, but accurate calculations and a variety of useful astronomical information were assembled by the use of long metal sighting tubes without lenses which limited the area of the visual field. They were especially important in the study of the moon and comets.

Ferdinand Verbiest, a Belgian astronomer (1623-1688) was one of a group of thirty-five missionaries who reached the island of Macao in 1659, and the following year he was called to Peking. The young Emperor Khang-Hsi was popular with his own people and most anxious to make use of the scientific skills of the Jesuit missionaries, especially Verbiest. In due course, Father Verbiest became the head of the Chinese Bureau of Mathematics. This


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Tycho Brahe's observatory, Uranienborg, in the island of Hven, in 1576, built through the munificence of Frederick II of Denmark. From Astronomy jar A// by Bruno H. Burgel, London: 1911.

Ferdinand Verbiest, from Peking by Alph. Favier, Vicar General of Peking.


brought the Jesuits into direct contact with the old astronomical instruments built by Kublai Khan. Although still useful, this equipment was more or less outmoded and Khang-Hsi requested the priest to construct new equipment of the most approved type. In 1674, Verbiest was able to complete six instruments: a quadrant, six feet in radius; an azimuth compass, six feet in diameter; a sextant, eight feet in radius; a celestial globe, six feet in diameter; and two armillary spheres, zodiacal and equinoctial, each six feet in diameter. They were cast in brass, intricately ornamented with Chinese symbols and artistic embellishments in addition to their usefulness. In spite of their great weight and size, Verbiest's mechanical skills provided devices for adjusting and manipulating the equipment quickly and easily. In the year 1900, all of these astronomical devices were still in a perfect state of preservation and entirely functional. I visited this observatory in 1924, and the astronomer in charge assured me that everything was in good mechanical order. One of the instruments shown to me was presented to the emperor of China by Louis XIV of France.

At the time of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, foreign troops looted the old observatory and some of the finest instruments were taken by the Germans and sent to decorate a terrace in Potsdam. The looted items were replaced by copies, approximately half size, but as one of the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany returned the originals which are now on view. While in the observatory, I photographed this rather complicated armillary sphere, here illustrated, which had been returned from Germany. French troops also took some of the observatory equipment and sent it to France, but the French government refused to accept the looted instruments and ordered them returned immediately to China.

The accompanying figure of the astronomical observatory erected in Peking by the Jesuits is from a mission report of P. Duhalde reproduced from The Power and Secret of the Jesuits by Rene Fulop-Miller. The instruments are on the top of a kind of tower about ten feet higher than the city wall. Each piece was on a raised base surrounded by a fence . When Verbiest created the new astronomical equipment, he carefully preserved the older ones, but


Armillary sphere in the Peking observatory after begin returned to China from Germany. Photograph by Manly P. Hall.

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Observatory established in Peking by Jesuit missionaries. From the mission report of P. Duhalde.


after his death several ancient pieces were melted down. The principal change was the division of the circles from three hundred and sixty-five and one-quarter degrees of the old Chinese system to three hundred and sixty degrees according to the European system.

In our collection is a curious volume devoted to the astronomical instruments in the observatory on the wall in the city of Peking. The book, the Shogi-sho-zu, in accordian form, contains ninety-two pages of hand-drawn pictures and is believed to be the work of a Japanese artist in the closing years of the eighteenth century. The work is bound in heavy wooden boards and measures 13 Y4 " x 14 Y4 ". There is considerable damage due to worming which does not however seriously interfere with the details of the various astronomical instruments. Each drawing occupies a full page and a number of diagrams are devoted to the mechanical devices by which the astronomer could control the movements of the massive bronze pieces.

We are reproducing four of the hand-drawn representations of the equipment shown in the Shogi-sho-zu. The first is the TIEN TE NEI, or heavenly sphere. This is a star globe with metallic star shapes inlaid into the globe. The second is titled the WANG TAO NEI which corresponds to the armillary sphere of Western astronomy. The third is called in Chinese TE PING CHING NEI and provides the means to determine altitudes and angles in relation to meridians of heavenly bodies. The Chinese title translates "land survey instrument." The fourth curious design represents the CHI HAN NEI and was used to determine the progress of the years. Details of the machinery are included and, at the left side, hands show the method of raising and lowering the central sectiQn of the instruments. Much has been made of the ornate decorations included by the Jesuits to impress their Chinese patrons.

In 1600 the Jesuit astronomy priest, Matteo Ricci, was privileged to examine another observatory established in Nanking. It was located on a high hill within the city and every night astronomers attended these instruments and reported their observations to the emperor. The four chief scientific devices were a globe, an armillary sphere, a gnomon (the part of a sundial which casts the shadow), and an equatorial torquetum.

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Stuart Chase in his volume Mexico, A Study of the Two Americas pays the following tribute to the scientific achievements of the Amerindians whose culture flourished in southern Mexico: "In astronomy the American mind reached its climax, and the Mayas were its High Priests. Starting, as we have seen, with observations of the heavens some 4,000 years ago, the Maya calendar is developed to a point where it was possible to distinguish without duplication any given day in 370,000 years. This was far in advance of European astronomy; more accurate than anything socalled western civilization achieved until recent times."

In Wonders of the Past edited by Sir J. A. Hammerton, New York: 1948, it is noted that most of the Maya glyphs that have been decoded indicate that these people were deeply preoccupied with astronomy-related scientific researches. In the section "Maya Marvels of Central America," L. E. Elliott writes, "Long periods of acute observation brought Maya knowledge of astronomy to a pitch of exactitude that would not shame a modern nation, although the latter has the advantage of the telescope. No doubt exists that, in addition to careful observation of the movements of the sun and moon, the Maya astronomers were able to calculate the motions of many planetary bodies, and that they checked their solar and lunar counts by the heliacal risings of the planet Venus."

In legendry and lore the secrets of the powers of the heavens were revealed to mankind ~y Quetzalcoatl, the Son _ of Heaven, born from the Supreme Being in its aspect of father-mother. Both the astronomy and astrology of the Central American nations were summarized in the Tonalamatl- The Book of the Fates of Men which was compiled by Quetzalcoatl for the good of humankind. Torquemada, in his Indian Monarchy, states that Nazahualpilli, King of Tezcuco, retired within his observatory to contemplate the heavens and the stars.

Reproduced here is a leaf from the Tonalamatl of Aubin. The book contains twenty leaves, each featuring a major deity with lesser divinities bringing the number to fifty-two. The judicial year of the Aztecs (borrowed from the Maya system) consisted of three hundred and sixty-five days, eighteen months of twenty days each. It is certain that the calendar system was principally concerned


Leaf from the Tonalamatl in the Aubin collection.

with predictions relating to the lives of individuals and the destiny of the state.

Chich en Itza was for many centuries the capital of Mayapan, the empire of the Itzas. The complex of ruined buildings there is dominated by the great pyramid of Kukulcan, now called the Castillo which is a vast calendar and can probably be considered a universe symbol. The number of steps ascending on the four sides plus the upper platform equals three hundred and sixty-five, signifying the days of the year. For further details see A tlantisMother of Empires by Robert B. Stacy-judd. A short distance away stands a massive structure rising on three levels referred to as the Nunnery, adjacent to which is a small chapel honoring Itzamna, the father-god of the Itzas. From the top of the Nunnery, there is an excellent panorama of the ancient city. From this vantage point I secured an excellent photograph of the Caracol, or the snail shell now believed to have been an astronomical observatory. This consists of a circular tower standing upon a flat pyramidal plinth. A spiral staircase inside the tower leads upward to the summit. This building compares favorably with the architectural achieve


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ments of the Greeks and Romans. In the background of this picture, the pyramid of Kuku1can rises majestically.

It becomes apparent from the astronomical equipment just described that our remote forebears were deeply preoccupied with the mystery of time. They observed the phenomena of winter and summer and the effects of the seasons upon the annual planting and harvesting of food and the reproductive habits obvious in the animal kingdom. The first emphasis was therefore of special importance to an agrarian culture. The next step was necessary to estimate the duration of individuals and nations and the rules governing life expectancies. Gradually, duration came to be divided into past, present, and future which enlarged and extended the theater of human enterprise. The development of the practical method of measuring the distances between events culminated in history and the regulation of orderly social procedures.

The origin of the sundial is unknown, but it was one of the most important factors in the advancement of human civilization. It measured time and therefore regulated the various ways in which human beings made use of their time allotments. I remember in Germany that every town and hamlet prominently displayed a sundial. It might be on the front of the cathedral, the rathaus (city hall), or some appropriate monument. Although it may not be in general service these days, the sundial is honored as an important relic to ancestral ingenuity. Often called the clock dial, its accuracy depended somewhat upon clear weather and it was useless during . hours of darkness. There is a fine sun clock on a wall of Chartres Cathedral and it has always been closely associated with religion for it reminds the observer that it is always time to make peace with God.

This brings to mind the third chapter of Ecclesiastes which is largely devoted to a dissertation on time, its uses and abuses . The first verse reads, "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven." The second verse is more explicit, "A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted." Those interested should read the rest of the chapter which largely emphasizes that time is ordained by Deity and circumscribes all the activities of mankind.


Sun clock on Chartres Cathedral from Astronomy jor A 1/ by Bruno H. Burgel.

Sundial in the courtyard of the Lama Temple in Peking. Photograph by Manly P. Hall.


Near the entrance to the Lama Temple in Peking stands an old Chinese sundial. It has often been observed that the Chinese do everything differently . Western sundials have the gnomon which casts the shadow on the upper surface of the dial, but the Chinese place it on the underside of the dial. A Christian cathedral and a Buddhist sanctuary therefore remind believers that the constructive use of time is the beginning of salvation.

Perhaps we should take this thought to heart for in these irresponsible days we waste the allotment of eternity which. has been made available to us. Antiquity explored the mysteries of the heavens to discover the meaning of daily existence. We have greater equipment, more wonderful resources, and we have inherited thousands of years of dedicated search for the realities of life. When we smile rather condescendingly at the old stone and bronze instruments, it might be well to remember that it is not the instruments man fashions that will bring the knowledge of the cosmic mystery. It is the little man who uses the instruments which determines their value. A dedicated truth seeker may learn more by the old equipment than an atheist making use of the vast resources of a great modern observatory.

Q

We are told in the Chinese annals that the Emperor Yu, son of Shun, who reigned in the 23d century before Jesus, invented a great sphere of gold, set with jewels, exhibiting the earth and revolving planets, as far as their revolutions were at that time known. On this sphere the planets were represented by jewels that corresponded to them in colour; and this doubtless was an orrery.

-J. Kenealy, The Apocalypse ojAdam-Oannes

The Stars are a quinta essentia, a fifth form of the elements and their life (extending beyond the four elements).

-Jakob Boehme

The universe is generated not according to time, but according to thought. -Heraclitus

69

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Curiouser & Curiouser A DEPARTMENT DEDICATED TO AUCE IN WONDERLAND

THE BATTLE OF THE BOOKS

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) considered himself to have been born to antagonize humanity. Of him, Horace Walpole wrote to Sir Horace Mann, "Swift is a wild beast, who worried and baited all mankind almost, because his intolerable arrogance, vanity, pride, and ambition were disappointed." Dr. Delany, an equally informed writer, had a very different estimation of Jonathan's character: "No man ever deserved better of his country than Swift did of his.... He lived a blessing, he died a benefactor, and his name will ever live an honour, to Ireland."

Swift is best remembered for his effort to disintegrate the political system of his day along with its attendant foibles in his celebrated book Gulliver's Travels. This is still a classic in its field and is required reading for those who choose careers in sociology. We may get around to this volume at some future time, but our present interest rests on a short work published in London under the title A Full and True Account of the Battle Fought Last Friday, Between the Antient and the Modern Books in St. James's Library. Swift in his preface, moralizes as follows: "Wit, without Knowledge, being a Sort of Cream, which gathers in a Night to the Top, and by a skilful Hand, may be soon whipped into Froth; but

68

1983 THE BATTLE OF THE BOOKS

once scummed away, what appears underneath, will be fit for nothing, but to be thrown to the Hogs."

As the title of the book would indicate, volumes of various authors written at different times are divided into two basic groups -the ancients and the moderns. There has been a long, lasting feud which finally breaks out with a vengeance in the St. James's Library. The struggle is symbolized by a curious engraving which appears in the edition of 1751 and is reprinted here for the amazement of concerned readers. Books by modern authors resented being placed on the shelf beside an antique classic. In the course of the conflict, an edition of Aristotle shot an arrow at one of Bacon's more famous works; but the shaft missed, went over Bacon's head, and hit Rene Descartes. While the story has no ending, it does have a curious beginning. An ancient man, living in the vicinity of Mount Parnassus, provided Jonathan Swift with a full account of the unpleasant proceedings.

On the side of one of the steep peaks of Mount Parnassus were two pleasant plateaus, one somewhat above the other. The upper level ground had been the domain of ancient books from time immemorial. It had a pleasant climate, a wonderful view, and occasionally some deep and studious seeker after wisdom would climb

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BATTLE Fought lall: F R I DAT.

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the steep sides of Parnassus to benefit from the learning of antiquity. Somewhat lower and not so fortunately situated but pleasant enough, modern books had established themselves. They were a rather snobbish group, extremely jealous of the ancients, whom they regarded to be old fossils with no contemporary relevance. For a long time these moderns had eyed the more exalted level of the ancient books with jealousy and bitterness. It pained them to have fewer visitors than the older group and to receive less attention and approval.

Finally the moderns, cankered by their covetousness, sent an unpleasant ultimatum to their betters on the higher plateau. They straightforthly demanded that the ancient volumes should relinquish their time-honored abode and permit the moderns to move in. The moderns would then graciously allow the ancient books to take over the plateau that the moderns would leave behind. Swift then goes into some further detail noting that, if the ancients were not gracious enough to surrender their territory, the moderns would move in with shovels and matchlocks and level off the higher hill until it was low enough to give them the dominant position. The earlier inhabitants also pointed out that the leveling would be impossible because the hill occupied by the ancients was solid rock throughout which would break their tools and also their hearts, but do no damage to the ancients. The older authorities also recommended that, instead of trying to disparage the wisdom of the ages, they should raise their own estate and accomplish higher distinction through improving the quality of recent learnmg.

It was thus that the trouble started, and the old wounds have never healed. The moderns have done everything that they could to disparage or ignore the noble pioneers of knowledge. Especially, the moderns have emphasized materialism, lowered the level of ethics, corrupted the arts, and profaned the sciences. As a result of this, they vastly outnumber early scholars, but they lack dedication and have trouble uniting for any useful purpose.

When it was decided that open warfare could not be avoided, both sides took stock of their resources. The ancients with longer experience and deeper insight realized that they should stand to

1983 THE BATTLE OF THE BOOKS

gether for mutual defense. They would live by their principles and, if overwhelmed, they would perish as martyrs as many of them had already done. The moderns were much more flippant. They wished to live well on small earnings, and were greatly divided among themselves. It was difficult to recruit soldiers to defend recent beliefs and opinions for, in times of peace, members of this group were not always on speaking terms with each other. It was further embarrassing to note that occasionally unkindly-treated modernists decided to climb the Parnassian steep and join the ancients. As those above had departed from this world long ago, there was no traffic in the opposite direction.

With his usual caustic wit, Jonathan Swift provided us with an allegory or fable which is very appropriate to modern thinking. There is still a strong belief that civilization began in the twentieth century. It is also nice to assume that we have so greatly advanced our knowledge and our skills that we can afford to ignore the ancestral wisdom of our race. Therefore, it seems that the moderns are winning the battle, but their victory may be short-lived.

All competition in the advanced arts and sciences is dangerous and detrimental. We need to benefit from the wisdom of the past in the same way that we are enriched by constructive memories. As our civilization sickens from fallacies, we must wonder how the troubles came about. We have not inherited our vices from the past but, because we have ignored the noblest of the ancients in trying to tear down the past, we have weakened modern life. In all probability, Jonathan Swift's fables are tied to the program of universal reformation which dominated the early seventeenth century and was embraced with some enthusiasm by the humanists of the early eighteenth century. We are being drowned in an ocean of literature, but the ancients on their Parnassian plateau are still well above the level of the flood-which is probably fortunate.

o

If time is precious, no book that will not improve by repeated readings deserves to be read at all.

-Thomas Carlyle

I 73

Happenings at Headquarters

" The spring quarter Sunday morning lectures at the PRS were

begun on April 3 when Manly P. Hall presented The New Commandment. Other programs given by Mr. Hall were Wrong Ways to Do Right; The Transcendentalists of Egypt, Greece, and Boston, Massachusetts; The Prophets ofAntiquity Versus the Profits of Today; Education Must Prepare for the World of Tomorrow; and Write Your Own Textbook for Constructive Living.

Other Sunday speakers and their lectures were: Roger WeirImmortality as Seen by Modern Science; Dr. Randall C. Phillips, a Trustee of the Society-Meditation and the Practical Approach; Dr. David E. Dunlap-A Practical Model of Ideal Human Communication; Joy Mills, Director of the Krotona Institute of Theosophy-The Mystic as Transformer of the World; Evarts Loomis, M.D., founder of Meadowlark in Hemet-From Illness to SelfRealization; and Ron Hogart-The American Transcendentalists.

On Monday evenings in eight sessions, Marie Filatreau presented Color: Use and Abuse.

On Wednesday evenings in seven sessions, Dr. Stephan A. Hoeller lectured on C. G. lung's "Seven Sermons to the Dead"; and in six sessions he presented Writers of Human Transformation.

On Thursday evenings in thirteen sessions; Roger Weir lectured on Spiritual Classics of the Late Middle Ages.

The Lyceum Programs hosted by Pearl M. Thomas on Friday mornings presented the following: Elena Morena- Yoga, Its Traditions, Principles, and Methods; Christine Giannini-AcupUrzcture Practice: East and West; Fred Springate-Heart Attack Personality; Hede Von Nagel-Finding the Tree of Life; and Kay Herron-Hatha Yoga.

On three Saturday mornings in April, the PRS Library sponsored the workshop series Gardens ofDelight. The first workshop

72

1983 HAPPENINGS

presented Gerow Reece conducting On Being in a Garden, A Protected Place for Growth; the second workshop, Peter Dukich, presenting Bio-Dynamic Gardening; and the third workshop, Lolita Lowell, giving a 35-mm-color-slide show of Flora and Fauna at Home and Abroad.

Other Saturday programs in the spring quarter were the following: Carlo Scarsella-A Survey of Astrological Predictive Methods; Judy Rich-New Dimensions in Staying Connected and Empowering Your Life; Roger Weir-Early Pennsylvania Rosicrucians, Pietists, and Friends; Dr. David Dunlap-The Search for Meaning; and Dr. Stephan A. Hoeller-From Old Time Faith to Timeless Knowledge.

The PRS Library spring exhibit featured Flowers in Religion and Art. Original manuscripts on flower arrangements were displayed along with wood-block prints, embroideries, floral fabrics and playing cards, surimono, examples of flowers in heraldry and bookplates, and European herbals.

Q

Every man is the tamer of wild beasts, and these wild beasts are his passions. To draw their teeth and claws, to muzzle and tame them, to turn them into domestic animals, fuming perhaps, but submissive-in this consists personal education.

-Amiel's Journal

In every human heart are a tiger, a pig, an ass and a nightingale. Diversity of character is due to their unequal activity .

-Ambrose Bierce

While talking about strangers, you might recognize yourself. -Russian Proverb

Pardon others often, yourself never. -Publilius Syrus

75

..LIB~~Y NOT{S ~~~Pt

The first annual booksale sponsored by the Friends of the PRS Library was held in 1978, and was enjoyed by all concerned. Persons interested in the maintenance of our activities had been invited to contribute volumes which were no longer essential to the advancement of their own studies. The sale has been held annually ever since; an unusually large group of material was donated for the 1983 booksale and included many scarce and basic volumes. Incidentally, Mr. Hall examined all the material donated and selected a number of books to be added to the permanent collection of the Society.

The library of the Philosophical Research Society contains important collections of research material in the fields of comparative religion, alchemy, Eastern and Western philosophy, esoteric arts, and the sciences of antiquity. Many of the early printed books and unpublished manuscripts are rare and seldom included in public institutions. There is no charge for the use of our library facilities. There are no complicated forms to fill out, no deposit,S are required, and every effort is made to supply information needed by serious students. Although there are several major collections of books in Southern California, the PRS Library includes many important works not available in any other American library west of the Mississippi. Considering the size of our collection, we have an unusually large number of original manuscripts and printed works of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, and ancient writings of the first and second millenia B.c.

74

1983 LIBRARY NOTES

It is obvious that collections of rare material require considerable maintenance. We feel that it is a moral duty to protect in every way possible rare and important texts which have already survived for three or four centuries. The old paper is beginning to look a little tattered on the edges, hinges are weak or actually broken away, and antique calf or morocco are in various stages of deterioration. Even with careful usage, faults develop that must be corrected as quickly as possible .

For example, recently it became necessary to rebind Antiquites Etrusques, Grecques et Romaines in four volumes, Naples: 1766. The work is devoted to the antique collection of Sir William Hamilton who was one time British Ambassador to Naples, and at the same time the neglected husband of Lady Emma Hamilton. This is one of the most beautiful publications ever printed. There are hundreds of illustrations and copper engravings, exquisite initialletters, and extraordinary title pages in each of the volumes. In sixty years of book collecting, Mr. Hall has never seen another copy. The example in the PRS Library is a British Museum duplicate with the stamp of the museum on the bindings and introductory leaves. The books are in imperial folio and the contents are in perfect condition. It finally became necessary to have the volumes rebacked. We wanted to save all we could of the original bindings by inserting heavy hinges of new material. The average bookbinding establishment could not cope with this task, but it was successfully accomplished by an expert binder at the cost of $650. There is a great deal of rebinding needed on other books but we can only do a little at a time when donations permit.

Another important consideration is the best way to protect rare books which are beyond ordinary processes of reclamation. In such cases the best solution is to make xerox copies for the benefit of readers and preserve the originals in the vault of the Society. While xerox copies are not expensive, volumes running into several hundred pages each involve considerable cost.

Prior to about 1960, bookdealers usually had rare books rebound or rebacked before offering them for sale. The work had to be well-done and be satisfactory to prospective buyers. In those good old days, a valued volume might be offered for fifty dollars if


in good condition. If it needed repairs, the cost would be included in the sales price which was raised to sixty dollars. Things have changed now, however, and all possible expenses are passed on to the purchaser. A dealer's catalog offered a first edition of John Taylor, the Water Poet, for some paltry sum like a thousand dollars. The description included the note: "Text in fine condition, portrait of the author in proper place, binding defective." The truth is that both the back and front covers were ready to fall off, the corners were bruised, and the rib was scraped and wormed. The first thing a purchaser had to do was to provide a new binding in keeping with the value of the text, and at present prices there would be a further outlay of approximately two hundred dollars. Mr. Hall once turned down a first edition of John Taylor with fine binding and crisp throughout for $150. The important point is that inflation makes the purchase of a replacement copy prohibitive and the proper care of books increasingly costly.

Publishers are beginning to realize that facsimile copies of rare books are in substantial demand. It is our own hope to bring a number of rare items back into circulation through photolithographic reproduction. We would like to hope that in due time thoughtful persons realizing this need will establish a fund to advance this project. Several items of this type have already been published and two others are now in preparation which Mr. Hall hopes to be ready for distribution this year.

We now also have our library bookplates featuring Hermes Trismegistus, the ancient Egyptian patron of books. The design is a reproduction of a copper engraving by the seventeenth century artist Theodore de Bry who designed most of the illustrations for works on alchemy and Rosicrucianism. There are three types of the bookplate. A standard form for the general collection and new acquisitions by purchase. There is a second style which is a donor's plate with space for the name of the person presenting a significant volume to the library. The third plate indicates the basic collection presented to the Society by Manly P. Hall. The donor's plate can also be adapted to a memorial gift.

Mr. Hall considers works of art to be essential to our educational program. Over the years, we have had a number of

1983 LIBRARY NOTES

valuable donations which are of museum quality. Friends who have artistic material, religious artifacts, or association items are invited to consider the Society as a respository for such items. Material of some value, but not directly useful can be sold or exchanged to provide badly needed funds.

It seems very important to us that institutions such as our own should receive private or public assistance. It is obvious that idealistic programs seeking to provide information which will strengthen character, ennoble the mind, and inspire the emotions have virtually no benefactors. Vast sums are expended to perpetuate institutions and policies which are already proven failures. We have observed however that there is an increasing number of thoughtful individuals who are becoming aware of the need for idealistic education. We hope they will be inspired to assist to the best of their ability programs and projects which can contribute to the proper solution of the prevailing uncertainties. We would like to hope that those who recognize the need will support in various ways the remedy for that need.

Those making use of the facilities of our library are invited to check the catalog regularly. New and important volumes are being added with considerable frequency. Recent acquisitions include Ptolemaic Alexandria by P. M. Fraser in three volumes published by Clarendon Press, Oxford: 1972. It is becoming increasingly evident that Alexandria was a source of many esoteric doctrines and philosophical systems. We now have one of the most important publications in the field of Oriental culture, Science and Civilization in China by Joseph Needham, F.R.S., Cambridge University Press: 1954-1979. This massive collection is already recognized throughout the world of scholarship as the definitive work covering Chinese astronomy, meteorology, geography, cartography, geology, seismology, and minerology, etc., etc. We have all the volumes so far published. Others are in preparation. Another extraordinary work involving the Alexandrian culture is Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period by Erwin R. Goodenough published in thirteen volumes, folio, for the Bollingen Foundation, by Pantheon Books: 1953-65 and Princeton University Press: 1968. This is an in-depth study of symbolism illustrated with hun


dreds of representations of artifacts, inscriptions, monuments, and religious figures and symbols.

Among other recent arrivals should be mentioned a two volume set in folio, The Poetical Works oj Mr. John Milton, London: 1720. The frontispiece of volume 1 is the excellent portrait of Milton at the age of sixty-six years, engraved by G. Virtue. This edition includes Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained and several other shorter works. There are numerous illustrations scattered throughout the text. On the title page reproduced herewith, Milton is attended by an angelic figure bearing a lyre.

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The current display in the library features authors and autographs, and includes a number of autographs of persons in our fields of interest, among them religious leaders, novelists, philosophers, and scholars. Prominent individuals represented in this display are Luther Burbank, Walt Whitman, Ernest Thompson Seton, Joseph Smith (founder of Mormonism), H. P . Blavatsky (founder of the Theosophical Society), Marie Corelli (distinguished novelist), Francis Bacon (scientist and philosopher of the seventeenth century), Rabindranath Tagore, Abdul Baha, and Albert Pike (distinguished Masonic scholar). Books, photographs, an original sketch by Anthony van Dyke, and other association items are included in this unusual display.

Our regular program of library exhibits has made it possible to display inspiring examples of the world's cultural heritage. In these days when it may appear that we have lost contact with internal integrities, gracious examples of inspired love for the beautiful and the good help us to keep faith with enduring values.

1983 LIBRARY NOTES

THE POETICAL

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The Fifth Annual PRS Library Book Sale got off to a good start on the morning of April 23rd. Before 8:30 A.M. several eager peo~ pIe were standing in line for the opening, well equipped with boxes to hold their book purchases.

There was much work involved prior to the actual sale. Phil Boroff assembled the items which had been stored in vadous places. Lolita Lowell, Merian Ritchey, and Kay Herron worked for several days sorting the books into categories. Alice Buse, Rosie van der Borg, and Libby McCoy guarded the money box; and Libby's son helped carry boxes of books down to the cars. Kay Herron, Lee Walker, and Pauline Marr helped everywhere. The room filled with customers the moment the doors opened.

The sale continued on Sunday morning. Some of Manly P. Hall's early books were included and were sold almost immediately. After the morning lecture many books were sold at a special rate of $1.00 per shopping bag. When the excitement subsided, Roger Weir conducted an auction which included a number of rare books. Seating arrangements were provided by Lynn Blessing and Jerry Stearn so that the bidders could be as comfortable as possible. Many notable books changed hands including three original copies of Mr. Hall's master work, The Secret Teachings of All Ages. While these brought substantial prices, they were actually sold at much less than most dealers offer them on the open market. First editions of MPH's found ready buyers. Some books available at the auction have long been out of print and the bidding was swift and good-natured. The enthusiasm engendered by the sale was sincere and generous, and Roger Weir kept reminding the customers they were supporting a very worthy cause.

Everyone worked hard and the Friends of the Library are grate- . ful to members of the audience for their enthusiastic support. It was a happy event for all concert:led.

o

THE ORIGIN OF THE EGYPTIANS By Augustus Le Plongeon, M.D.

A vailable Sept. 15, 1983 Hardback $17.50

This latest title of the PRS Rare Book Reprint Series is a limited edition of 1000 copies, with approximately fifty illustrations and an introductory preface by Manly P. Hall.

Dr. Le Plongeon, author of the popular books Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx and Sacred Mysteries among the Mayas and the Quiches, was a medical doctor who gave up his practice in 1868 to devote his life to exploration and research in Egypt, Central America, and the Yucatan. Mr. Hall WqS fortunate in being able to secure many of his valuable original photographic negatives and other acquisitions, among which was the original manuscript of this book-the little-known last volume completed by Le Plongeon.

Those searching for the answer to the lost Atlantis as found in the records of ancient people will find this work of major importance, as well as those interested in the history, linguistics, and archaeology of these areas.

Order directly from the Philosophical Research Society, Inc., 3910 Los Feliz Blvd., Dept. B, Los Angeles, CA 90027. Please add 6070 (10% for UPS delivery) to the total cost of your order for shipping and handling, with a $.75 minimum ($1.50 minimum for UPS). California residents also add appropriate sales tax. All prices are subject to change without notice.

-oso~ lfinctlapsus memoriae ii i i i r~1 he importance of memory is seldom fully appre ciated...

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